Tim Leiweke and Masai Urjiri talk Raptors and potential name change

That made sense — why would either man give away any of the Toronto Raptors’ strategies to the public before they started talking to teams around the league? Yet, Leiweke, Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment’s new president and CEO, and Ujiri, the Raptors’ new president of basketball operations and general manager, overflowed with confidence. They promised to set the franchise’s goal at a championship level, with no more talk of merely making the playoffs.

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Here is a selection of what Leiweke and Ujiri said to reporters during and after the pair’s press conference:

Tim Leiweke
On attracting Ujiri: “Many people that we talked to in the league said we’d never get him. He’s the NBA Executive of the Year. There’s no way that someone like that is going to leave an organization that good and come to Toronto. That’s a myth. People want to come to this organization. People want to come to this city. If you don’t believe it, look at the two guys sitting at this podium. We both want to be here and we’re both over the moon to be a part of this organization.”

On the power structure of the organization: “This is very simple: Masai is the general manager and president of basketball operations. Bryan [Colangelo] is going to be the president of team and business operations for the Toronto Raptors. There is a whole list of things that Bryan is going to lead the charge on to grow this organization. You don’t look at someone who has his experience, his knowledge and his relationships in the basketball world in the NBA and then Canada Basketball and then throw that out. … He’s going to be there to advise and give input when Masai asks for it. … The reality of the situation is we have one guy who is in charge of basketball and is making all of the decisions. He will lead the charge.”

On potentially changing the Raptors’ name: “We’re definitely going to take a look at it. It doesn’t mean we’re committed to it. It means it’s a good conversation. I saw those generic uniforms today in the paper. … That won’t be the uniform, by the way. I can assure you of that. I think we need to have this conversation.”

On the team’s poor history: “I inherit. I didn’t create so from my standpoint this is today and we move forward from here. What I can tell you and you will see here in due course, we can sit here and spin it any way you want. We can come up with clever marketing campaigns. We could go out and over promise and create unrealistic expectations. That’s not going to happen now. I know the team he is putting together. I know the staff he is putting together. I have had the opportunity to talk to these folks. You will see. I think it’s time for this organization once and for all to stop spinning and just go do our jobs. If we do our jobs with the right people and we create the right environment for them, I don’t think you and I will ever have that conversation again.”

On whether he would have a problem with the Raptors “tanking:” “Nope. This is [Ujiri’s] decision and his direction and we are going to let our president and GM make those decisions and we will follow him religiously. At the same time — and let’s be clear here — if he walks in the door and says we have a trade to make and this trade will get us a major chip and by the way it’s going to put us in the luxury tax, our owners have made it very clear we will be OK with that too. He is in a unique position. As far as I can tell this is the deepest and the team with the most resources of any team in the NBA. I think that is one of the reasons … he’s here.”

On why Ujiri came to Toronto: “Quite frankly, he’s not the highest paid GM in the league. He’s not in the top five based on what I know about rest of the league. The financial thing we didn’t even talk about the first day. Not a word. We didn’t talk about it. We spent the day talking about philosophy. We talked about where we’ve come in our lives, what we would like to create here and we shared one common view. You recall the question from earlier today about you’ve seen the history of this organization. Why would you come here? That’s why you come here. Who wants to go — no offence — but who wants to follow Mitch Kupchak? … Am I OK with the fact that he is well compensated? Sure, he should be, it’s Toronto. We view ourselves as New York, Miami and L.A.”

On Ujiri’s enthusiasm: “We need juice. Let’s be honest: This Raptors organization needs juice. We need energy and I want him to build an organization with a bunch of other leaders here where our energy, our enthusiasm, our passion and as he likes to call it ‘our commitment to battle’ is unsurpassed in the NBA. We’re going to need it. The one thing I liked about him the most is the term that kept on coming up between him and I and that was ‘battle.’”

Masai Ujiri
On why he came to Toronto: “This is a stage I’ve always wanted in my life. Some people say, ‘Do you take a job because of money? Why do you take a job?’ Guess what? Someway, somehow this was meant to be. I’m here and I’m going to try to help this organization to get to where we are. It’s going to take patience. It’s going to take will. We’re going to install passion, a passion to win. The overall goal in the NBA is to win a championship. That has to be the goal. It’s not playoffs, it’s not. It’s to win a championship at the end.”

On his view of the organization: “I’m at the process of hiring a staff now who I think are going to analyze the situation and evaluate the whole situation in the next few weeks. At a certain time we’ll be able to tell where this roster can go. I think there are good pieces on this roster, there are phenomenal players on this roster and then we have some things we need to correct. The ways of doing it, different ways, we will meet and figure our which ways we are going to do it. I think there are some good things going. Whatever needs to be corrected or whatever needs to be done, after I’ve hired the staff we’ll be able to put that together.”

On the status of head coach Dwane Casey: “For me, Dwane Casey has done a great job. But I need to sit down with coach and figure out what his philosophies are and what he’s thinking for the future of this team. He has to explain or maybe even tell me what his evaluation is of our players and what he thinks of our players and then I can give my part of what I think about the evaluation of our players and then we go from there. I need these two to three weeks where coach and I are going to figure out whether this thing is going to go forward for the next year. Right now I don’t see any reason why [he won’t return].”

On the importance of youth: “This is a good place for basketball here and we have to build on it. We really have to build on it. One of my philosophies is to develop young talent. Maybe the back of our roster has to be young guys that grow, that we continue to develop and get better and the opportunity will come.”

On the importance of advanced statistical analysis: “It’s something that I think is a good part of the game. We use it the best that we can. At the end of the day, it’s all talent and it’s all [heart]. There are no numbers that calculate what’s right in here. You have to go out on the court. I know when those big-time players come and they want to play and they want to kick butt.”

On his personality: “For me, scouting is my background. Finding talent is what I know. My wife won’t like this, but I’m always off on the road. I’m always trying to figure it out regardless of who is seeing the talent or which of us goes see the talent. That’s my background. That’s what I know. … Do I think I’m better [than when I left Toronto in 2010]? Yes. Do I think I’m still learning? Yes. Do I think I can do it? Yes.”

On his front-office staff: “I’m going to have a small staff. I believe in small. I think all of the other stuff is kind of in-house for now. … Some people I’m still evaluating. Some people are obviously no longer here. We’re going to create the office that we want.”

On Bryan Colangelo: “There’s no issue with Bryan Colangelo. There’s no issue. None, whatsoever. I don’t know how to help you guys. If there’s something you want to create or do whatever: There is zero, zero issue. OK? None. OK? I’m on the hot seat here. It doesn’t matter what Bryan tells me, input, or whatever he says or whatever I take from him. At the end of the day, I’m on the seat right here. … Let’s move on from it.”

On being the first general manager born in Africa: “I do feel pressure there. That’s the only place in my life where I actually feel pressure for a continent that big. … To have this opportunity here, I have no other choice but to be successful. That comes from putting the organization I work with first. That comes with winning. That’s going to help over there. For me, financially, that really helps me in Africa. I can go and do more. I can go and help more people. We can build more courts. We can do more camps. We can help more kids come to school in the States. … To me, it’s an obligation.”

On Andrea Bargnani: “He has an NBA skill, in my opinion, that’s very valued in this day and age. I know people are talking about stats and analytics [but] a shooting big is what every coach wants and how you use it, how you do it is left to be said. But he has that skill. We can say all the negatives we want, but I’m here and I’m going to deal with the positives and try to analyze the negatives and go forward. My thought on Andrea is he’s one of the better-shooting bigs in the NBA and we’ll evaluate the situation from there.”
On Jonas Valanciunas: “Huge piece. Huge. Fantastic young talent. With big guys, already his development, second team all-rookie [is great]. … I look at Roy Hibbert, when I scouted Roy Hibbert, he was in high school and body was completely different. Not to say it’s taken that long, but the progress Jonas has made, the passion he shows and the hard work he puts into it, I feel he has a bright future.”